Introduction to the Design and Analysis of Composite Structures: An Engineers Practical Guide Using OptiStruct

Written as a self-paced training course, the books objective is to provide the professional engineer with a practical resource on the design and analysis of composite structures. With the recent high utilization of composite materials in aerospace, automotive, civil, marine, and recreational structures; comes the high demand for engineers with composites design and analysis knowledge and experience. However, the availability of engineers with the required knowledge and experience is difficult to obtain. Therefore, many engineers are faced with the daunting task of performing composites design and analysis projects with little background in composites design and analysis. The book is aimed at helping those engineers gain practical composites design and analysis knowledge in as short a time as possible. The book focuses on obtaining a fundamental understanding of the basic equations of composite material behavior which drive composite structures design. After completing the training course provided by the book, practicing engineers will walk away with the latest knowledge available to design weight-efficient composite structures.


About the Author
After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Structures from Purdue University in 1998, Jeff worked for The Boeing Company in St. Louis under the Boeing Defense & Space (BDS) and Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T) organizations. At Boeing, Jeff was primarily responsible for the development of detailed composite analysis methods and was one of the co-developers of the Boeing Onset Theory with primary researcher/developer Dr. Jon Gosse. Jeff received his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Solid Mechanics from Washington University in 2002. While at Washington University, and in conjunction with The Boeing Company, Jeff worked on extending the p-version FEA theory with Dr. Barna Szabo and the ESRD-StressCheck development team to applications of detailed composite bonded joint analysis. Jeff joined Altair Engineering in 2005 as a Product Line Manager for the Aerospace Industry and soon thereafter became the Director of Modeling and Visualization overseeing Altair's HyperMesh, HyperView, and HyperGraph products. Jeff is currently the Senior Technical Director for the Aerospace Industry at Altair Engineering and helps aerospace customers around the globe implement composite design and analysis technologies into their current and future airframe designs.